Fun with Numbers

Objectives:
• Read and write three digit numbers both in numbers and names
• Expand a three digit number into its place values
Prior Knowledge:
• Read and write numerals for numbers up to 99.
• Counting - starting from any number, group counting etc
Engage:
• Song “One Two buckle my shoes”
• Some questions to test number sense. E.g. what comes after 99, how many digits are there in the number 100, what is the cost of your bag etc
Explore
Activity 1: My three-digit number: Here, Teacher gives digit cards to the students which contain only single digits e.g. 0, 1, 2, 9. Students are asked to form two-digit numbers initially and also students are asked to read out the number they formed. Students are asked to write their names as well.

Later, Teacher asks the students to form threedigit numbers using the digit cards, read them aloud and write their names.

Reflection: During this activity, students formed two-digit numbers and discussed whose number was greater. One student kept the number zero card in the first place, followed by the number three card. After my explanation of the game, he changed the order and read it out as 30. Students found it difficult to read numbers ending in zero (10, 20, 30 etc.). After some practice, they overcame this difficulty.

Activity 2: Handful of money: Here students are given currency cards. Teacher asks the students to represent the price of each item they found in the classroom with the currencies. Here, the teacher may help the students by saying the cost of objects they don’t know. Next, the teacher asks a student to give some amount of money to his friend. The friend who has got the amount should count it and write it down. He should write the number of ‘hundreds’, the number of ‘tens’ and the number of ‘ones’. If a student gives two hundreds, three tens and five ones, then another student should count it and write it as two hundreds, three tens and five ones; he should also write it in numbers as 235.

Reflection: When handling currencies, students were already familiar with the names of currencies. Students represented the prices of objects inaccurately (greater than or less than the actual cost). As my aim was getting three-digit numbers from the students, I didn’t bother about it. In the ‘Getting an amount and writing its number and name’ activity, one student asked me, “Sir, Rahul gave me only two hundreds and five ones but no tens. Tell him to give me some tens.” I told him “if he didn’t give you tens, just use zero in its place

EXPLAIN:
Forming three-digit numbers by grouping the objects: Here students are given some icecream sticks. Students are asked to bundle them in hundreds. After bundling in hundreds, they may have some sticks remaining. Those should be bundled in tens and so on. Once all the sticks are bundled, students should be asked to write the corresponding three-digit numbers. Forming three-digit numbers with the help of digit cards: Each student is given three different single-digit cards and asked to make as many different three-digit numbers as possible with those three cards. These cards help them to manipulate the digits and concretely experience and understand how so many different numbers are made through just a few digits. They can later be asked to arrange the possible combinations in ascending or descending order. This also helps children to really understand the place of 0 (zero) in hundreds, tens and ones in forming a  three-digit number.

‘Dig the digits’ game:
Materials needed:
1. Nine sets of digit cards on which the digits 0 to 9 are written.
2. One set of 9 hundred name cards (‘ONE HUNDRED’, ‘TWO HUNDRED’, ‘THREE HUNDRED’ etc.) Procedure or directions:
1. The digit cards are shuffled and distributed one-by-one equally among all players.
2. The bundle of hundred name cards is also shuffled and kept upside-down in between the players.
3. The upper-most hundred name card of the bundle is turned over to reveal the hundred name to all the players.
4. Each player has to make the largest threedigit number possible starting with the revealed hundred name card, with their cards

For example:
The revealed card is ‘THREE HUNDRED’. The first player makes a number starting with digit 3 e.g. 398. The second player makes 399. The player who makes the largest number gets the most points (i.e. the second player).

How to give points:
If there are four players in a group, the highest number of points is 4. The person who makes the second-largest number gets 3 points and subsequently 2 and 1 for the students who make the smallest number. Note: Points get adjusted according to the number of players.
• The cards which are used to make numbers in each round are put aside and not used further in the game.
• In case a player does not have the required starting card, the player misses to go and gets 0 points. In this case, the player who makes the smallest number also gets zero.
• If all the hundred cards are revealed once and not all the digit cards have been used, then they are shuffled again and kept upside-down and the game progresses. The game continues until all the digit cards have been used. In the end, all the points in the tally are added up for each individual player. The player who gets the most points is declared the winner.
Note: The game is played in the same manner for the thousand name cards
ELABORATE
‘Place value, face value’ game:
Representing three digits with base 10 blocks Students are divided into four groups. Only one should play at once from each group. The game goes like this. Teacher should say a three-digit
number aloud. One from a group should write the number, number name and represent the number using base 10 blocks. Teacher may use the chart below for this game. The group which completes it gets 4 points, the second finishing will get 3 points and so on. For the next turn, a new member from the group should play a number which has not already been played. The game ends when all the members have had a turn.

Reflection:
As soon as I showed the cards, the students started to ask if it was trump cards. I explained what the game was and how to play it. As soon as I revealed the name cards from the centre cards, they read the number name and started to search for the first digit ie. the hundred place value digit. A wonderful thing I saw when one student didn’t have a hundred digit card and I told her that she couldn’t play in this turn but her friend, who was playing against her, gave her the needed digit card from her hand of cards. In one turn, the SIX HUNDRED name card was revealed and all formed three-digit numbers starting with 6. When they were finding out whose number was the biggest, one girl formed 689 and one boy formed 698. After seeing the boy’s cards, the girl reordered her digit cards into 698. In the meantime, one boy who formed 698 in the beginning searched for the number ‘9’ from his cards and replaced 8 with 9. Finally, that boy got the most points. During the game, students helped each other to form the biggest number. Students had difficulties when dealing with number zero cards. One student formed 601 as he only had 1and 0 digit cards. I asked him which is greater, zero or one. He said ‘one’ and immediately formed 610.